GP Appraisal Buddy | Dr Miriam Carone

Overview

GPs gather appraisal evidence all year, then rebuild it in a rush before the meeting. The official requirements are scattered and sometimes vague (no GMC number for CPD, nothing on PDP length).

The tool answers one question at a glance: what do I still need, and how often? It is one step in the process. The declarations and the formal portfolio stay in FourteenFish (or the local system).

It runs in the browser, with no accounts and no uploads. It is part of the RALPH family of free tools, alongside the GPST timetable tool. Try it live.

My role

Process

1. One screen answers "am I ready?"

I researched what an annual GP appraisal actually needs and wrote a short strategy. The Overview then groups every requirement the way the requirements actually work:

Section 1: Yearly. Section 2: Every cycle (the 5 years to revalidation).
Within each: Required, then Confirm (e.g. "confirm no complaints"), then Optional (compliments).
Each row says what is needed in one line (e.g. "At least 34 responses. Invite about 45.") and shows progress.
Colour carries meaning: amber = required and not done, yellow = needs a confirmation, green = done, dashed = optional.

Overview with Section 1 Yearly and Section 2 Every cycle, each row showing status and what is needed — The Overview: both time scales, what is needed and how far along you are. Fictional data.

2. Designing by subtraction

I reviewed it in short rounds, and each round removed things: declarations (FourteenFish owns them), the logo, extra fields, the evidence tab. No GMC number, role, designated body or responsible officer. No accounts. No uploads: it is a notebook and summary.

Empty first visit asking for appraisal and revalidation dates — First visit: two dates, then everything is to do.

Add entry dialog for a CPD activity — Adding an entry.

List of CPD entries reached from the Overview — CPD entries, reached from an Overview row.

PDP page with objectives to review and reviewed — PDP: to review, reviewed.

3. Honest content

Where no rule exists I say so ("The GMC sets no number"). Targets are editable, and the part-time/LTFT note tells people to check with their appraiser.

4. Trust by design

Data lives only in the browser. There is a JSON export/import, a plain-text summary to paste into FourteenFish, a print/PDF summary, and an offline copy that runs from a file with no network.

Summary page ready to print or paste into FourteenFish — The summary, for printing or pasting into FourteenFish.

5. Small design rules

Same tokens and type as RALPH. Reads as part of one family.
Clinical and plain. Plain "RALPH" far left, title centred, regular weight.
Section banners with centred titles. The two time scales are distinct at a glance.
No monospace, no vertical accent bars, no decorative dots. Removes the usual generated-UI tells.
Wrapping tabs, never horizontal scroll. Works at 390px and up.
Night mode follows the device. For late-evening preparation.

Overview on a phone at 390px wide — The Overview at 390px.

6. Building it

A dependency-free vanilla JS single-page app, about 2,400 lines of JS and CSS. Tested at five widths for horizontal overflow, keyboard focus, XSS, storage-blocked mode, offline and print. Deployed on Cloudflare Pages behind a router Worker with a strict content security policy.

Impact

0accounts, uploads or data leaving the device

55automated tests (33 unit, 22 browser), all passing

Freelive for any UK GP, no sign-in

The tool tracks nothing about its users, by design, so there are no usage numbers yet.

Developed by Dr Miriam Carone, part of RALPH.